Elder Connor Anderson: 36th P-Day (29th in France)

Hey, everyone! Here's my weekly update! Enjoy!

This week started off with exchanges in Valenciennes with the District Leader and his "trainee", Elder Koshiol. I was put with Elder Koshiol this time, which I was kind of nervous for, because he's new and has worse French than me. It ended up being a really good exchange though! We went contacting in Cambrai and found a really cool woman who later became an investigator! Yay! Elder Larson and I are meeting with her tomorrow, so that should be fun. While there, we also picked up some souvenirs, took pics, and went to McDonald's, because Elder Koshiol hasn't really done any of that yet (our District Leader is a really hard worker, which doesn't leave room for Elder Koshiol to do anything fun haha). Then we came back and had a 2 hour rendez-vous with a new investigator that I had never met before. She rambled on for the whole 2 hours about nonsense. My favorite part? She straight up lied to us lol. She said that she didn't know our church or anything about it, but at the very end she unleashed dozens of deep doctrine questions. I was definitely thrown for a wild ride with this one. Her questions ranged from why church is three hours long to baptisms for the dead to why Joseph Smith had multiple wives. This woman literally did so much research and had the audacity to say that she "didn't know anything about us" when we first showed up lol. Oh well. Those were fun questions to navigate... Especially when Elder Koshiol didn't understand anything about it and I had to do all the talking/listening. Oh Evelyne. I'm excited to see how she progresses with us haha. After this, we met up with the other Elders and headed to a restaurant here in Valenciennes called, "107." It was so good and really filling, which made the next day start off a little awfully...

Wednesday started with some early morning jogging. This, combined with the food from the night before was awful! We all got stomach sick from this and decided to take the rest of the exchange easily. After exchanges, Elder Larson and I headed to Maubeuge to do some finding. The day had perfect weather, which I soon realized put everyone in a good mood. Everyone was nice to us! Lots of men came up to us and told us that we had "class" and we also had some girls cat call us haha. While there, two teenage girls stopped us, because they heard us speaking English. They said that our accents were "hot" and asked where we were from. Anyway, the conversation lead on... and one of them actually ended up becoming an investigator, so that's cool!

On Thursday we did some finding in Cambrai, which I am now able to drive to without the help of the GPS (#Blessed). We had two teenage girls following us during this (whatever makes teenage girls interact with us so much this time of year, I may never know), which was extremely awkward lol. No immediate success came from this finding, but maybe it will in the future? Who knows! I then made a lot of cookie dough (you already know whose recipe I used) for our ward function on Sunday. We then headed to our in-active member, Emile's, house for a rendez-vous. He was chill, as always, and we invited him to our church's "Venez and Voyez" on Sunday, which is a special church service for all the investigators with a meal afterwards (hence the cookies). He said he'd come, so that's a success, especially because he hasn't been to church in over 2 years.

Friday started off with an early morning district meeting. As I arrived, the Zone Leaders gave me a nice package from none other than Cherie Heath, filled to the brim with Canadian candy. The Canadian Elders were SHOOK and a little jealous ahah. After district meeting, we took our district photo for the end of the transfer. I'll attach it in the album. When we got back, I cooked the cookie dough. It took FOREVER, because we only have one baking sheet and the oven is slow. I also made enough dough that it made about 80 good sized cookies. The things I do for this ward haha. After the cookies were baked, we headed over to a rendez-vous with a woman that we found in our phone. She was an old investigator from the Phillipines that was found a few years ago. She's a mail order bride to this French man, and she basically only speaks English. The rendez-vous was pretty long, because everything we said we had to say in English and French so that both of them could really understand it. They were both really nice though and want us to come back over often. Their favorite missionary was Sister Romney (Mitt's granddaughter) and they have pics of her throughout their house haha. Anyway, the rendez-vous went well and now he's considered an investigator as well!

Saturday started off with service! A member in Paris asked us to help him and his sister move all of their mom's stuff into a retirement home with them. This involved moving lots of wardrobes and HUGE china cabinets down and up multiple flights of stairs for a little over 4 hours. Both the brother and the sister are old themselves, and definitely needed the help. The sister isn't a member, so the brother also wanted us to help so that she would have a good impression of Mormons other than her own brother. After the service, the sister prepared us a little lunch and it was actually pretty good. They were definitely good people! I don't know if I'll ever see them again, but I'm grateful that I got to meet them! After that we had another rendez-vous with Hourya. After that, we set up a rendez-vous with the teenage girl from Morocco who stopped us in Maubeuge for this next week. Tricky thing is that she's afraid that she'll be in danger if she tells her parents that she doesn't want to be Muslim anymore. Please keep her in your prayers, everybody. She is really interested in our gospel and I really just want her family to be accepting of her, no matter what! We were also able to teach her some of the Restoration over Messenger, so that was nice.

Sunday was nice! Because this week was "Venez and Voyez" for our investigators, fast sunday was pushed back again! Haha! We had a good turn out and so many members brought their non-member friends and lots of our investigators showed up too! The food was delicious and lots of people ate my cookies lol. What a great day for missionary work. Hopefully some of these people will become investigators! I'd love to be able to teach them!

Today we went to Mons, Belgium to do some shopping. We need a new smoke detector for our apartment, so we had to go to Ikea for one. Upon arriving, we found out that all of their detectors are out of stock for the next month lol. So we decided to eat in their restaurant and treat ourselves. IKEA FOOD IS NOT CHEAP HERE. I REPEAT, IKEA FOOD IS NOT CHEAP HERE. I got a tiny slice of Salmon and a handful of fries for 11 Euros. Was it good? Yes. Are the prices better in America? Yes. And American Ikea has Mac N' Cheese, so my hopes were high. Sadly, the menu is different here haha. Then we did some window shopping up there and I already know what clothes I will be purchasing next Soldes. European fashion is everywhere and I'm in love haha!

I encourage you all to invite your non-member friends to church sometime. It really made a difference here, and I know that it can make a difference back home as well. A little invite goes a long way, and I know that this gospel can change peoples' lives for the better!

Thanks for all the love and support! Till next week!

Elder Connor Anderson

Cambrai with all of it's British glory